| الوصف: |
There are many challenges that special education teachers face throughout their career. One of the most challenging aspects is the utilization of technology in the classroom, whether it be due to finding the time to learn about technology tools that would benefit their students, or teacher's overall confidence in implementing the technologies due to their preparedness and the rate at which technology changes and advances (Brownell et al., 2005; Berry & Gravelle, 2013). This document discusses the teacher's challenges in depth, describes in detail the digital divide categories that exist within our society, and defines assistive technology, all in a practitioner friendly way. In addition, there are specific chapters which focus on how to utilize mobile devices and apps that are readily available to implement into the classroom. Each tool is connected to the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines (UDL), legitimizing how they can be helpful for student engagement and learning. There are also tools listed in the later chapters that provide connections to existing evidence-based practices (EBP), furthering the justification for educational use. The overall concept of this survival guide is to create content for special education teachers that simplifies the searching process of technology tools to use in the classroom. Emphasizing the research to practice gap also solidifies that there are many technology-based tools that exist today for educational use; however, these tools are not always implemented in the classroom. Identifying these barriers and gaps brings awareness to the technology implementation struggles that teacher may face. This survival guide matches technology tools to the UDL framework in order help educators efficiently pair tools to student needs and abilities. |
